After 34 years, Small Business Week is still going strong.
    For 34 years, the Business Development Bank of Canada has been organizing BDC Small Business Week ™ in recognition of the contributions and achievements of Canada’s    entrepreneurs. Events held during the week bring entrepreneurs together at conferences, luncheons and trade fairs across the country where they have the opportunity to learn, network and enjoy themselves in the company of their peers.
    The Theme of 2013 Small Business Week is Success Ahead! Map you Future Growth.
Every business begins with an idea and a vision.   Yet, the roadmap to growth is never simple. Canadian entrepreneurs know that long-term success requires passion, commitment, hard work,  a great offering and a solid plan. Expanding your market —whether at home or abroad—demands determination and adaptability, resources, an appetite for greater risk and even a little luck. Use BDC’s Small Business Week 2013— a time to celebrate and recognize the nation’s business owners—to help map your future growth and success.
     Small and medium-sized businesses are the cornerstone of the Canadian economy. They account for 99.8% of all Canadian companies and employ more than 60% of private sector workers. At the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), we believe this contribution deserves to be celebrated. We also believe entrepreneurs need support in building successful, innovative businesses. BDC Small Business Week™ activities provide an opportunity to celebrate, develop new skills, make new contacts and plan for new opportunities.
BDC Small Business Week™ is a Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) trademark whose origins date back to 1979 when BDC business centres in British Columbia’s Lower Fraser Valley pooled  their resources to organize a week of activities for entrepreneurs. This first event and one that followed in 1980 were so successful that BDC officially launched Small Business Week across Canada in 1981. Canada’s business community quickly adopted the initiative. In 2012, over 200 activities across Canada attracted close to 10,000 business people to BDC Small Business Week™. This BDC flagship event celebrates entrepreneurship at the local, provincial and national levels.

    Just a couple months into the new school year and young entrepreneurs are taking the town by storm.
    This year, St. Anthony’s School has introduced a unique entrepreneurship program to its high school curriculum, and is being noticed.
    A couple of weeks ago residents may have noticed students throughout the area setting up different enterprises, from bake sales to movie posters, they were pounding the pavement.
    “Most of the students have finished running their first venture already,” said JoAnne Akerboom, who is delivering the course. “The most successful one in terms of profit were two guys who decided they were going to do car detailing. They did such an excellent job that people were lining up for their work.”

The Entrepreneur program at St. Anthony’s has students excited for their first ventures. Cody Makowecki sold off part of his poster collection  to get the ball rolling.

    Akerboom introduced the program to St. Anthony’s leaning on work she had previously done introducing a similar program in Eastern Canada. The work is very much experiential.
    “We call these ‘mini-ventures’ or a business for a day. Basically we told them within the first week of September you are going to run a business for a day,” said Akerboom.’
    In the case of the auto detailers, Akerboom said they have continued and are now looking for a place they can continue, as the weather gets colder.
    She said they have to complete a second venture before Christmas. The course specifies that one venture has to be community or school based and has to be a not for profit venture.
    “That will be where they give back to the community. One of the things we are teaching is that entrepreneurs are very community oriented,” said Akerboom.
    The program is unique in that it develops the student in a number of subject areas, such as communications, marketing technological literacy, mathematical literacy, decision-making and problem solving. In all these areas, the students self critique their progress.
    “A big area is personal qualities, characteristics and attitudes that are needed to succeed, generally speaking, critical and creative thinking and independent learning,’ said Akerboom. “They actually have to think about how they develop in all of these areas every time they run a venture and mark themselves.”
    She said the course is challenging students and they are meeting the challenge head on.
    Some are a little hesitant because you put yourself out there and you could fall flat on your face. For some of them that is hard, you are pushing them out of their comfort zone. But even some of the shyest people have picked ventures in which they are comfortable,” she said.
    This year there are 17 students registered for Entrepreneurship 10. The course will continue to the 30 level.